The TWIST Cluster

TWIST is the business Cluster Cinema & Digital Media in Wallonia (Belgium). TWIST is the main business cluster active in the sector of digital audiovisual and multimedia technologies in Belgium.

TWIST (Walloon Technologies for Image, Sound and Text) is the Walloon cluster of players in the audiovisual field. It groups together private companies, universities, research centres, training centres and public authorities working within the media and audiovisual sectors.

A “business cluster” or enterprise network such as TWIST has a mission to boost the economic development of its members and to give structure in a general sense to the sector as a whole. Set up as a partnership between private and public players, TWIST is financed by both the private and the public sector. However TWIST, like the other Walloon centres and clusters of competence, remains a privately managed network.

TWIST, a unique network in Belgium

Today, TWIST consists of 105 members, representing 4,500 employees. One thing they have in common is a renowned knowledge of the audiovisual profession, either as a technology user (service providers) or as a developer of innovative technology, principally in the following fields: cinema, television, animation, video games, Internet, Mobile, augmented reality, transmedia, multi-screens, etc.

In a general manner, TWIST addresses three types of customers: content producers (cinema, television, animation, multi-screens), television channels (development of innovative technology and service provision), and players in the communication and events fields (Internet, web, mobile, multi-screens, augmented reality, etc.)Of course, the network remains open for all channels of expertise and players in the audiovisual sector. Today’s evolving technologies reinforce the interest of such a network, as pooling competences makes it possible to build bridges and create synergies between the different industries in the sector. The know-how developed this way for over a decade in the film industry is today frequently used in other sectors, such as communication.

TWIST, a business-oriented network

Finally, TWIST is in charge of several procedures meant to offer its members and their clients a competitive advantage: networking, export missions, commercial monitoring of public calls for tender, strategic monitoring, European projects, etc. It is therefore no coincidence that the European Commission trusted TWIST with the creation of a European research agenda in the multi-screens (transmedia) field. The convergence of media has become a subject full of innovation, thus creating wider employment. The European Commission wants to position itself as a leader in this field. TWIST and its partners (France, Sweden, Spain, Estonia, Québec) work to identify new technologies and on the set-up of European consortiums in order to respond to these innovative audiovisual projects.